Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood First Look

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It's back to the blood-drenched Wild West.

By Jason Ocampo

More action, less platforming is the way Ubisoft describes Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, the follow-up to the Wild West shooter that debuted in 2007 on the PC and 2008 on the Xbox 360. Call of Juarez was almost mystical at times, as you could pursue Native American spirit quests that involved climbing a mountain. The emphasis in the sequel around is on gunslinging, and there's going to be plenty of that, as Bound in Blood will feature flashbacks to the Civil War and beyond in its story.

Bound in Blood is basically a prequel to the first game, telling the story of Reverend Ray and his brother, Thomas, when they were younger and full of foolish fire. You'll be able to select which brother to play at the beginning of a mission; Ray is bigger and tougher and an expert at close range combat. Thomas is smaller, faster, and better at long-range weapons. In other words, think sniper. Basically, choose the one that fits your play style the best.

Hey, pardner.

With two playable characters, you might assume that there's a cooperative mode in the game, but that's not the case in Bound in Blood. This being a gritty Western and all, alliances will be tested and broken, and the brothers will eventually go head-to-head at some point, which sort of negates the idea of a co-op campaign. Still, there will be cooperative modes in multiplayer that's built around the idea of recreating historical events, such as the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

You can expect plenty of big, set-piece battles. For instance, Ubisoft demoed a large battle between rogue Union troops and Native Americans. This involved gunning down a large number of rogue troopers, as well as using an early Gatling gun and then planting explosives on a cliff to rain down rocks on their cannons below.

Each brother has his strengths and weaknesses, as well as his own concentration mode. In the first game, the concentration mode let you shoot at multiple targets in slow motion, a Wild West bullet time. Here, the concentration modes are a bit different. One brother can "paint" targets in slow motion, and then when time kicks back to normal he erupts in a flurry of gunshots. It's a cool cinematic effect.

Meanwhile, the duel system has been overhauled to be more about "the dance." In the first game, all you had to do was draw your gun faster than the other guy; it was a bit simple. In the sequel, you have to maneuver left and right to keep the bad guy in front of you, but you also have control of your gun hand. You can move your hand toward and away from your six-shooter to try and provoke the other guy into drawing early. There's a lot more strategy in this method, not to mention tension. Meanwhile, a new cover system is in place so you can "hug" cover easier in a gunfight. This should eliminate the problem of you always standing straight in the first game.

Draw!

In addition to the co-op battles mentioned previously, there's a new multiplayer mode called Sheriffs versus Outlaws for team-based games. There's also a Wanted mode where the more money you earn, the larger the bounty on your head, so it makes it harder to pull ahead of the pack.

Bound in Blood will introduce an enhanced version of the Chrome engine that powered the first game, and the first thing that stood out to me is how much more vibrant it looked, especially in terms of color. The first game felt dry and gritty and, honestly, a bit bland. Bound in Blood compensates for that with a deeper color palette that shows off the contrast quite well.

There are not a lot of people making Wild West shooters, and this basically looks like a more polished Call of Juarez. The sequel will ship on the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 sometime this summer.